Mayors Patrick Kindt and Patrick Gombault

French Mayors Support the Stralsund Call for Peace

In October, the city of Stralsund, Germany, and its mayor launched an initiative to urge peace talks in the Ukraine war. The mayor addressed an open letter titled, “A New Stralsund Peace,” to the Federal government in Berlin. The letter and initiative made reference to an important peace treaty signed in Stralsund in 1370, which brought an end to a long series of wars in the Baltic Sea region, and offered Stralsund as a venue for negotiations to end the Ukraine war.

Unfortunately, representatives of Stralsund could not participate in this Schiller Institute conference, but said they will do so in a future one. Their initiative made international headlines, and five municipal officials of French towns, including four mayors, became signatories of that appeal and sent their greetings and support. The representatives of Stralsund said they feel equally represented at the Schiller Institute conference by the two French mayors who are speaking today. They are Patrick Kindt, Mayor of Chidrac, a town in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 535, and Patrick Gombault, Mayor of Viâpres-le-Petit, in the northeast of France, with 126 inhabitants. They may be small places, but they’re about to write history. They have been mobilizing to find more who will sign, and now 19 French mayors are signatories to the appeal by the city of Stralsund.

This is the edited transcript of the presentations by these two French mayors, to Panel 1, “Stopping the Doomsday Clock—The Common Good of the One Humanity,” of the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 22 conference, “For World Peace—Stop the Danger of Nuclear War: Third Seminar of Political and Social Leaders of the World.”

They spoke in French with simultaneous English translation and closed captioning. The full proceedings of the conference are available at the Schiller Institute website.

Mayor Patrick Kindt

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to all of you!

Following the call by the Mayor of Stralsund, which I find necessary to have peace and avoid all the problems, I would like to add why I am responding entirely to this call from Stralsund with my following positions.

Even if one does not accept the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, it is necessary to analyze how this state of affairs came about. It seems obvious that the United States has long been pursuing two objectives in Europe: to weaken Europe and make it dependent on the United States, and to put Europe on the front line in order to prevent Russia, among others, from becoming a competing power. The position of Europe and of France in particular, with its alignment with the American war machine called NATO, does not allow us to act for peace with other countries. It is therefore urgent for the interest of the Ukrainian and Russian populations, and for the interest of the world, that this war stops.

Negotiation remains the only way to stop the spiral of war, both present and future, where the people are always the losers.

Mayor Patrick Gombault

It is always difficult to express oneself on a subject that one does not master perfectly. However, one thing is clear: many possibilities to obtain a peaceful solution to this European conflict have been neglected, even before the outbreak of hostilities. Diplomatic activity has not been the favored voice. It is time for our leaders to take stock of the situation and to avoid a totally irreversible situation.

My thoughts are with the people of Ukraine. I have no doubt that they would have preferred a demilitarized, neutral Ukraine, a prosperous, free and harmonious union instead of exodus, drama, and destruction.

Let us have a strong will to replace weapons with diplomacy. And so, I salute here the initiative of the city of Stralsund in Germany for this will for peace.

Thank you.